How Forever Feels
by doctorose
Summary: Tentoo/Rose wedding fic. The Doctor and Rose just want to get married already, but everything goes a lot differently than either expected. (Sounds stereotypical, I know, but just go with me on this one.) Fluffy fluffy fluff, one-shot.


A/N: First off, major thanks to everyone who reads this. Secondly, apparently someone cried whilst beta'ing for me (I'm guessing because of the near-sickening amount of fluff), so read at your own risk, heh heh. Third, the title is a nod to an older song by the same title by Kenny Chesney. I find that the lyrics fit Tentoo right now very well. Last, there is something of an allusion to _Night At The Museum_. See if you can find it. Anyway, thanks again and happy reading! (I hope!)

* * *

_"Muuuuum!" _Rose Tyler groaned for the seventh time within the past five minutes. She batted away her mother's anxious hands, which were currently in the business of attempting to yank out that one pesky hair that refused to comply with the rest of the group. _Damn, _how she wished she'd had the energy to argue with her mum for just a few more minutes when the topic of her hair had come up six months earlier. Any amount of screaming and desperate pleading, really, would be worth evading three hours and forty-eight minutes of Jackie Tyler pulling and preening and perfecting Rose's hair for this particular day. She could have gone to a professional stylist and this would have all been over and done with in the span of two hours max, but _ohhh no. _As always, Jackie was adamant. Thus, here she sat in her mother's master bathroom.

"Rose Marion Tyler, if you don't let me finish this, I _will _bring out those baby pictures for the reception. Y'know, I really don't see why you're so-"

"_MUM!"_

"You know what? Fine. I'll stop, and you'll walk down the aisle looking completely mad with that one strand sticking up and everyone will see it. Everyone! So if you'll just let me..." Jackie gave no warning as she tore out the unfortunate follicle.

_"Ah,"_ Rose hissed, jerking her head away. "Okay, it looks fine. I really need to go. _Now_," she said as she began to stand up and stretch. _Oh God, my back..._

"Sweetheart, come on, just let me do one more thing," her mother coaxed. Rose let out an exasperated moan and plunked back into the godforsaken chair. Jackie reached out for some thin, long, lustrous object on the counter along with a bobby pin or two, worked them into her daughter's hair, and finally stepped back to admire her work.

"There. You're gorgeous, love," she said, for once, quietly. Something lingered in her gaze. It was pride, it was love, it was the hint of nostalgia at the radiance that was her daughter on her wedding day, all grown up.

Rose tentatively turned her head to inspect the new addition in the mirror. An elegant aquamarine ribbon wove through pale waves and curls. After further examination of her reflection, she noted that her mum really had done an exquisite job. Golden locks swooped upward in an unfathomable labyrinth of twists, then tumbled gracefully down her backside to meet her ivory gown. It seemed as though Jackie's time as a hairdresser so many years ago hadn't yet left her.

"Oh, Mum," Rose gasped, and pulled her into a loving, albeit constricting, hug. The mother of the bride smiled and lightly squeezed her daughter back.

"Careful, dear, you'll mess up your dress and hair if you go too rough like that."

"Mmmph, f'whatever," Rose mumbled into Jackie's shoulder.

The sudden creak of the door opening startled both of them apart. The Doctor's head poked through the crack of light. "Hello, Rose? Anybody? I'm trying to find my–"

_"OI!" _The familiar shrillness of Jackie Tyler's battle screech filled the room as she advanced on the groom-to-be with a (thankfully off) curling iron. Pure terror crossed his face and he quickly slammed the door before he could see anyone, leaving Jackie with her weapon raised.

Safely behind his barrier, he cried, "What've I done _now?_"

Right as her mother was about to tell him _just _what he'd done, how he'd broken a sacred tradition and now the couple were probably doomed for all eternity, Rose rushed over and clamped a hand over her mum's mouth.

"Mum, he probably doesn't know. Jus' give him a break, yeah?" Jackie rolled her eyes.

"What's that? What don't I know?" The partially muffled voice demanded.

"Nothing, Doctor, just some old Earth thing," she told the door dismissively. "Go on, get out of here, I probably don't know where whatever you're looking for is, and we need to leave soon if we want to be there before five... Wait, what time is it?" she asked no one in particular, craning her neck for a glance at the clock above the doorway. It read half-past-four. "Shit," she muttered under her breath, taking her hand off Jackie's face only to cover her own forehead with it.

"Uh, I–I can forget the emergency stain remover, I think I'm just gonna get in the limo," the Doctor said somewhat frantically, sensing the growing tension in the room opposite him.

"'Kay, Doctor, see ya," Rose said defeatedly.

The door opened again, but this time it was Jackie, shoving Rose aside to peer through.

"Get on with it! Shoo!" The bride-to-be could just imagine the Doctor backing up with both hands out in front of him defensively. The Oncoming Storm, afraid of nothing but one Jackie Tyler.

"Okay, thanks, but what are we gonna do now?" Rose asked hopelessly after the door had closed. "I still need to make sure the flowers are all in order, including my bouquet, and the Doctor needs his boutonniere, and I gotta double-check that at least _someone_, preferably Dad, is gonna give Tony the rings, and... and..." Much to her irritation, she found she was fighting back tears. This wasn't supposed to be how her wedding day was to go, all frenzied and disorganized and then there was the fact that she was probably going to be late to _her own damn wedding _and _where had it gone wrong? _She frustratedly wiped a tear from her eye.

"Oh, come here, love," Jackie said as she pulled Rose into another embrace. "Everything will turn out fine, just like it always does," she murmured into her hair. Rose sniffled.

"This just– it wasn't s'posed to happen," Her voice broke on the last word. "I didn't think that this was all gonna take so long, I should've planned better, it's my fault..." Rose dabbed a finger on her cheek; it came back covered in a watery black substance. "See, now my makeup's ruined, too. _God,_ why!"

"Rose. Look at me." Jackie looked her daughter in the eye and brushed a wave out of her face. "Nothin's gonna get done by crying about all the things we still need to do. 'Kay? So I'm gonna call Pete and tell him to check up on the flowers or whatever and make sure he and Tony know what to do. I want you to just worry about touching up your makeup, and I'll figure out everything else. I'll meet you in the limo in twenty, yeah?" Jackie massaged her shoulder lovingly.

"Yeah. Thanks, Mum." Rose rubbed her aching forehead and nodded, smiling weakly. As Jackie left the room to call her husband, Rose walked back over to the dresser and set to work on the twin mascara rivers running down her face.

* * *

The Doctor clambered into the limousine, a mess of lanky limbs with an anxious frame. If he looked closely, he could see his hands trembling slightly, yet another inconvenient giveaway that this body featured. This whole ordeal–_the wedding,_ he corrected himself–was proving to be more nerve-wracking than even he could have imagined. He silently wished that he'd have been able to catch at least some sort of fleeting glimpse of Rose. There was no doubt that she was positively stunning, nothing new there. Unfortunately for him, Jackie had come at him with a _curling iron, _of all things. He snorted. Typical.

But maybe it was better that he hadn't yet seen his wife-to-be. Of course, he wholeheartedly wanted to marry Rose. She was, quite frankly, worth more than any universe to him, and he knew he'd have no problem proclaiming that to her and the other two hundred or so guests that Jackie insisted on inviting (_"We'll need all of Vitex there, and of course Torchwood– now don't give me that look, it would be _rude _not to! And then you _know _all the magazines will want coverage, and they'll get it whether we let them in or not..."_). The thing was–

The privacy divider rolled down and a scruffy yet kind face appeared. "'Scuse me, sir?" The driver asked jauntily.

Startled, the Doctor jolted out of his thoughts. "Er– yes?"

"We're about to start moving, jus' wanted to give you an 'ead's up. Also, there's choco-nana milkshakes in the fridge to your left, specially ordered, if you'd like," the man said, jerking his head over to where a small cooler was lodged between doors.

"Oh, brilliant! Thanks very much, sir," the Doctor said, already leaning over to grab one of the frozen treats that beckoned him. The driver nodded and rolled the divider back up, and the limo began rolling.

The choco-nana was indeed as delectable as he'd anticipated, perhaps more. It most definitely did serve to calm his nerves. Just the perfect amount of chocolate shavings, and delightfully more than satisfactory in the banana department. He found he was even able to salvage a cherry when he got the notion to take off the dome lid and outright drink the shake from the cup.

But maybe, just maybe, that wasn't the wisest idea. Even if he did get a cherry out of it.

It happened so fast– one minute he was gulping his troubles away, and the next he was given a fresh batch of life-or-death anxiety, all in the span of a horrendous _BUMP._

His chest was suddenly too cold, too wet. Too gloppy.

Letting out a most colorful stream of curses in his native tongue, the Doctor thumped his head on the leather headrest and squeezed his eyes shut. But he knew he would have to assess the damage to his three-hundred-pound tux.

He immediately wished he'd conducted a more thorough search for his trivial Tide-To-Go pen. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

Sheer panic took over. _What do I do what do I do I'm going to be late Rose is going to hate me..._

After fumbling wildly to get the traitorous treat the hell away from him, he rapped against the glass to get the chauffeur's attention. "Excuse-me-I'm-so-sorry-but-I-think-I'm-going-to-n eed-to-turn-around," he said in a rush. The Doctor lurched sideways as the limo swerved to pull over.

"Wha's that now, mate? Why?"

The Doctor gestured to his front pleadingly, hands waving about as if they hadn't a clue as to what they were supposed to do.

"Oh, bloody hell, man," the driver murmured appraisingly. "Yeah, where'ya need to go?"

The Doctor sighed and gave directions to his and Rose's flat. The vehicle made a rather precarious U-turn and started off back home. Though he knew there was next to no chance of finding an acceptable substitute, desperation clouded his mind and clung to the last minuscule shred of hope left. There had to be _something. _He raked his fingers through his hair and waited.

Upon their arrival, the Doctor bolted from the limo and into the flat. He jabbed the lift call button repeatedly and fidgeted throughout the short ride. He almost tripped over his own feet scrambling out into the hall. He burst into the flat panting– why oh why couldn't he run like he used to? He really did take respiratory bypass for granted.

He cast the ruined attire onto the sofa and made a dash for his closet, the first line of defense. Throwing the door open, he stared at his options of t-shirts, jeans, more t-shirts, that atrocious pair of khaki trousers Jackie had forced onto him, some odd plaid shirt that he'd never seen before... He raised an eyebrow, but continued browsing, to no avail.

An aggravated moan escaped him. He'd specifically altered this closet so that it would be able to contain a much wider variety than this, there had to be more! He kept rifling through, and eventually stepped through the first row and clicked his fingers twice for the backup lights to come on. (He'd been really quite thrilled when Rose inadvertently introduced him to the Snapper, this universe's version of the Clapper. _"Rose, don't you see the genius of this? Snap on, _snap snap!, _snap off! _snap snap_!"_ She hadn't been as amused.) He checked his watch. Five-twenty.

There were zero results, nothing, zilch. Synonyms for how fruitless his efforts were proving in languages from galaxies thousands of light-years away ran through his mind. Fine, then. He'd screwed himself, the wedding, and most importantly, his Rose. He began to panic again, thrashing around and hurling hangers out of his way. Still _nothing. _Except–

_Wait._

In the very corner of his vision, a long-forgotten fabric lingered, smashed up to the wall behind the bulk of the closet.

...Was it?

The Doctor waded through the sea of garments and reached out for what he hoped was his salvation. It was.

He grinned.

* * *

"Are you ready to go?" Rose yelled up the staircase, leaning on the bannister. Honestly, she felt the attempt was useless. It had been a hell of a lot longer than twenty minutes, and Jackie still hadn't emerged from her room. "It is"–she procured a slim phone from her clutch–"_Quarter to six _and you know what I think I'm going to do, I am going to get in the limo and drive far far away, maybe to my wedding, maybe not, and you are not comin' with me, I don't know why I didn't do that earlier..." She trailed off, barely aware of who she was talking to. It was obvious her mother couldn't hear her.

After her earlier bout of near-hysteria, a depressing surety had set in, oozing through every crack and crevice, slowly consuming her short-lived optimism. She was scheduled to walk down the aisle in less than fifteen minutes, and with the venue almost an hour away, she just wasn't going to make it. Plain and simple. Even if she left now, by the time she got there, everyone would have left, and it would more than likely be dark. There was almost something of a comfort in the security of the hard truth. Maybe she and the Doctor could just run to Vegas and never come back.

Rose started at the sudden _bzzzzz-bzzzzz-bzzzzzzzzz _of her hand vibrating furiously. She looked down at her phone to see the words _The Doctor _flashing across the screen along with a goofy picture he had taken of himself. She raised the phone to her ear.

"Hey, wondered where you'd been," she said, relief in her voice.

"Rose!" the voice on the other end crowed. "I'll be at the garden in just about–er–five minutes. I'm so sorry, Rose, I know I'm late–"

"No, no, s'alright, Doctor, I'm still back at the house," she said. "Mum's still not–"

As if on cue, Jackie appeared at the top of the staircase.

"Oh, God," Rose groaned. "Hold on a sec." She held the phone away from her face and turned around to face her mother. "Yeah, _now _you come out, soon as you hear your name mentioned! Are you even planning on coming?" She threw her free hand up in the air in agitation and brought the cell back to her ear. "Mum here finally decided to show up after doing God knows what for almost three-quarters of an hour," she reported in a false chipper voice.

"I had to–" Jackie began defensively, only to be waved off by her daughter. She gave a _"Hmph!"_ and crossed her arms.

The Doctor continued. "Anyway, I guess it'll be a while before you're here, yeah?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry Doctor, I really am. How's your day been going, have you had much trouble?"

_"Well-l-l-l-l," _he drawled, "I think you'll see when you get here." She could practically hear the grin in his tone.

She raised an eyebrow aimed at no one in particular. "What's going on? What'd you do?"

"Oh, what d'you know! We're here! Oh, is that Pete over there?... Hold on." She heard the car door open. "Hey, Pete!"

Well, at least one of them was there to hold down the fort. Sort of.

"'Kay, Doctor, I guess I'll see you... whenever I can get out of here," She looked back up at Jackie, who was still staring down at her. "Just... keep everything under control." That would never happen. "Or make sure someone else does," she added hastily.

"'Course, Rose, everything will be fine! Oh, no, here they come. I've got to get inside, I'll see you soon!"

"Bye, Doctor," she said, hanging up. Heels _clomp-clomp-clomp-clomped _down the stairs, and she turned to see her mum next to her.

"Now are you gonna let me talk?"

Now Rose was the one to cross her arms. "Go ahead."

"I wasn't spending the whole time adjusting my makeup or picking fuzzballs off my dress or whatever, I know that's what you think," Jackie started. "I was on the phone with the florist. Pete said he'd run into trouble with them and it turns out, you were right."

Oh no.

"Well, go on, what is it?"

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but it's not that bad really," Jackie said gently.

"Mum, what is it?!"

"They ordered the wrong flowers for your bouquet."

"_What?" _It was an easy enough order, just a simple bunch of lilies, how could they _possibly_ screw it up?

"Well... I guess they accidentally switched you out with someone else, with someone else's..." She hesitated.

"Mum. Just. Tell. Me."

"Fine. Roses."

_"Ohhhhh!"_ A mangled cry of frustration escaped her. "Are you _kidding _me? _Roses?"_

"Rose, I'm sorry, you know I argued with them–didn't you hear me? –But they've already got all the arrangements there. We can't do anything about it, love," Jackie said sympathetically.

Rose loved her namesake, she really did, but just this once, she wanted to avoid the combination of cliché and horrid pun. But apparently there was no getting around it. Like everything else that had happened that day, she'd just have to take it. And in retrospect, none of it was truly _that _bad. She'd seen things, been through things, a hell of a lot worse than what was going on now, and this, this was absolutely _nothing_ compared to any of it.

"Alright, whatever, we'll be fine. You're all ready, right? We gotta go," Rose said, heading for the door. "The limo better still be there."

To her mild surprise, the limo was still sitting in the circular driveway, although the chauffeur seemed to have dozed off. Jackie took it upon herself to incessantly tap the window, and once she'd woken up, they began the speedy-but-haphazard ride to the venue. (Rose had nudged a fifty-pound note through the divider and hissed _"Step on it.") _Though they arrived in forty minutes, shaving roughly twenty minutes off the usual time it took to get there, it was already dusk and darkening fast, just as Rose had predicted. They were greeted by snaps of cameras and dazzling white light and–

"Out of the way, just let me get to my daughter and wife, will you?" Pete Tyler elbowed another tabloid reporter and opened the door for Rose and Jackie to climb out and hastened into the marble building ahead of them.

"Hey, Dad," Rose said with a small smile once they were safely inside a side room. Bodyguards kept the paparazzi out of the botanical garden's welcoming center, reserved for tonight. _Probably gonna have to pay for being late, _she mused.

Pete gathered his daughter into a hug. Pulling back, he held her shoulders and smiled at her for a moment. "Rose, you are so beautiful. I couldn't be prouder to be the man to walk you down that aisle."

She kissed her father's cheek. "Thanks, Dad."

Pete nodded. "Of course, love. Now. I put everyone in the lobby to have an early cocktail hour, once I heard you all would be running late. You all go make final preparations. Rose, your bouquet is in the room next to this one on the right. Once you're all ready, let's say seven-thirty, is that enough time? I'll make an announcement for everyone to go sit down in a minute. Then I'll get Tony and Alice, and they'll go and the Doctor'll be waiting, and everything should go smoothly. I'll be standing by the door to the garden, okay?" He tucked a pale curl behind her ear and pecked his wife on the lips. "See you soon." He walked away with a phone to his ear.

Rose's bouquet, it turned out, wasn't as tacky as she'd predicted. Sure, it didn't exactly match her dress and their colors, but the mixture of pearl-pinks and fuchsias did, oddly enough, somehow complement the natural sunset glow of Rose Tyler.

"It's seven-twenty," said Jackie. "Are you ready?"

Rose brought a finger to her mouth to nibble on a gold nail, then stopped herself. One side of her mouth quirked up. "Yeah."

They moved to step out into the cool April air.

* * *

The Doctor stood on the steps in front of the white gazebo, which now glittered with fairy lights since the sun had descended beyond the horizon. He swept imaginary dust off of his still-immaculate suit, scratched itches that only existed in his head, tugged at his ear. What if she was put off by the suit; how would he explain it? Would it remind her too much of the... _other _him? Was that a bad thing? He was him, always was, always would be. The same man for centuries. She knew that just as well as he did, even more so.

A piano ballad began to play, and the garden became silent, save for a few idle whispers. All heads swiveled to watch Alice, Tony's neighborhood playmate that he and Rose babysat from time to time, as she scattered assorted tropical-colored flowers all along the satin white walkway. Next came Tony, carrying their shining rings on a tiny velvet pillow, appearing to be concentrating very hard.

Following her son, Jackie Tyler waltzed gracefully down the aisle, perfectly in time to the melody. As she walked, she turned to people she apparently knew in the audience, smiling.

Cameras flashed, and the music swelled, transforming into the wedding march in one smooth key change.

And then he saw her.

Never mind the fact that evening had spread her starry sapphire wings over them, Rose Tyler _shone, _brighter than any other burning ball of gas he'd ever come across. Her dress, a silken alabaster, fanned out behind her. Delicate lace crawled up her shoulders and down her arms like ivy. Hair of molten gold, more rare than any diamond planet, spiraled and cascaded and curled to frame her face. Oh, there was no comparison to Rose Tyler's face. Nothing like her delightfully pink cheeks, her chocolatey-caramel eyes, her tongue-poking-through-her-teeth smile. And he was hers.

* * *

As soon as Rose exited the building on her father's arm, though every face was turned to her, she saw no one but him.

Outlined in pale yellow light, she saw her Doctor. And, _Oh my God, _he wasn't in his tux, why wasn't he in his tux? But... this was better.

He wore the TARDIS-blue suit that he'd worn they day they'd chosen each other.

And he looked like he was all but buzzing with joy. He positively _beamed_ at her, that ear-to-ear grin encompassing his face. She continued down the aisle towards him, as fast as she could while still in time to the music, and finally came to a stop in front of her mum and Alice. Pete gave her a quick squeeze and, this time, kissed her cheek, and moved behind the Doctor.

She felt a tugging on her dress and looked down. Tony stood, smiling up at her. She waggled her fingers at her brother. "Got the rings, eh?" He nodded enthusiastically.

And then, there he was. Right in front of her, what she'd waited for for _so long, _her Doctor.

"Hello," he said quietly, so only she could hear him over the officiant's _"We are gathered here today..." _Rose felt her cheeks tingle with warmth.

"Hey."

He gave a small nod towards the suit. "This alright?" he whispered.

Her grin broadened. "Yeah," she said. "I love it."

_"Marriage is a solemn institution to be held in honor by all..."_

It was quite the surreal feeling as the judge carried on with the ceremony. He spoke too fast, but simultaneously drawled on at a snail's pace. The only person Rose found it in her to focus on was the Doctor, and so it seemed vice versa, taking in each other's features and trying (and at one point, coming close to failing) not to burst out laughing at everything and nothing.

"And now, I believe, each of you have written your own vows?" The officiant gave bride and groom each a small piece of paper with the promises they'd make to one another. He nodded to the Doctor, indicating for him to go first.

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair, blushing a bit, and blew air out of his mouth. He took Rose's hand in both of his gently.

"Well. Rose Marion Tyler," he started. "You are... you are honestly, one of the most brilliant, the most brave, charming, witty, caring people I have ever, in all my time, had the privilege to know. If you..." he swallowed, "If you were to ask me when, exactly, I fell in love with you, I wouldn't be able to tell you the exact moment. Sometime between grabbing your hand and running, and dancing with you for the first time, I fell, hard, and tried to stop... But I couldn't." Rose found her whole being was numb; nothing existed outside the two of them.

"So this is me, not stopping," the Doctor continued. "Rose Tyler, I promise you, that I will never leave your side. I will always, _always, _be there for you, no matter where we go, no matter what we go through. You, Rose, are my universe, and to spend the rest of my life with you would be the best gift I could ever receive," he finished modestly, looking at her to gauge her reaction after such a personal admittance. Somewhere during this, tears had begun to seep down Rose's face, and she gazed up at him with a pout-smile through misty eyes. She wiped the tears away, and held up her own card.

"I, um. Don't know if I'll be able to top that," She laughed a little, along with a chuckle from the audience. "But, Doctor, I'm so, so lucky to have you. Everything I learned from traveling, meeting all those people, jus', just being with you, I love it, there really is no comparison.

"For a long time, I thought I'd lost you forever, and those were the worst years of my life. I missed you, you and your crazy techno-babble and your wonky eye and–" She could see a bit of smugness in his face. "Oh, shut up! I'm just boosting your ego, aren't I?" She gave him a light play-slap. Another laugh rippled through the crowd. "Anyway, I knew I had to do something about it. So I did, and now you're stuck with me for the rest of your life, and with this one life that we've got, I know that I'll... cherish you more than I ever have. Doctor... when I'm with you, I'm not just happy." She paused. "I'm whole."

"Stuck with you, that's not so bad," he added softly, grinning. A wave of pure affection rolled over her.

* * *

"Now, Mr. Tony, if you'd like to give us the rings, we can proceed." The little ring bearer happily offered up the pillow and gold bands.

They slid on each other's rings with murmurs of "With this ring, I thee wed," and finally the judge stood back and said, "Then, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now seal this union with a kiss."

The Doctor beamed again, filled with joy close to few things he'd ever felt before in his centuries of life, and leaned in towards his new wife, but stopped just inches away from her face.

"Rose Tyler, I love you," he whispered.

Rose laughed, a sound of blissful bells ringing out with pure elation. "I love you too, Doctor." She pulled him down by the lapels of his jacket to her lips.

His arms rushed to close the gap between them, deciding to outright scoop her up. Her hands snaked around his neck, his hair, his shoulders. She lightly cupped his jaw that moved perfectly in sync with hers, stroking with her thumb. He realized belatedly that he was smiling against her lips, and incidentally, she against his. He opened his mouth just the slightest bit, and she reacted immediately, slipping her tongue to teasingly flick his own. He moved his hand from behind her shoulder blades to a more... _covered _area, trying and failing to suppress a soft groan into her mouth. She brought a hand up to his adam's apple, feeling the vibration, when a sudden and rather pointed _cough, cough_ broke them apart. At least both had the grace to blush.

As a refrain of the earlier ballad started up, the Doctor hoisted her up and carried her down the aisle to applause and congratulations.

"Let's get out of here," he said into her ear. Minutes later, he found a surprisingly secluded hedge maze, and set her down.

Before anything, her curiosity got the better of her. "So... where'd you get this? Haven't seen it in a while." Her fingers trailed with a feathery pressure down the suit, coming to rest above his heart.

"Ah... my closet, actually. I've had it all this time. Not sure you'd want to know what happened to my tux, though."

She licked her lips, regarding him with an imploring expression. "Try me."

"Er, something involving a pothole–probably– and a bit too much of a choco-nana milkshake."

Rose couldn't help a smile, despite herself.

"But there's something else I wanted to show you. Look up," he said, caressing her cheek idly.

Because she'd been in such a hurry earlier, she'd never taken the time to notice the full crystal sky that stretched out infinitely above them, free of zepplins or light pollution. Both were quiet for a few moments.

"Bit fitting, isn't it?" Rose's tongue poked between her teeth again. "Us, married under the stars. Even if I had to be an hour and a half late for it."

He barked a short, happy laugh. "Oh, Rose Tyler," the Doctor said almost reverently, eyes still fixed on her.

"Yeah?" She wove her fingers through his, bringing their hands up between them and holding them as one to her cheek, then pressed his knuckles to her lips briefly.

He touched his forehead to hers. "I cannot wait for a lifetime of traveling the stars again with you."

She shook her head slowly with a smile, then looked directly into his eyes.

"God, I love you."

They kissed again, chastely this time, sweetly, with all the time in the universe.

* * *

_"How long are you gonna stay with me?"_

_"Forever," _She'd promised, oh so long ago.

And now they had it.


End file.
